The iPhone 6 Might Charge a Lot Faster Thanks to New Charging Algorithms

Consider this. Your iPhone already charges pretty fast (in about an hour), compared to ancient cell phones that required hours of powering to fully replenish their Nickel/Cadmium-based juice packs. So how about charging it in 15 minutes?

Engineers at the University of California, San Diego, are said to have come up with some sophisticated estimation algorithms that allow lithium-ion batteries to run more efficiently, and charge faster. A lot faster!

Potentially reducing their cost by 25 percent and allowing the batteries to charge twice as fast as is currently possible, the new algorithms developed by researchers at the Jacobs School of Engineering at UC San Diego could enable some devices to charge in just a quarter of an hour, according to UCSD.

Professor Miroslav Krstic and UC President's Postdoctoral Fellow Scott Moura in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the Jacobs School decided to take a new route in designing charging algorithms.

Instead of monitoring voltage and current, the new methodology actually estimates what is physically going on inside the battery pack – where the ions are placed.

This way, the software powering your next iPhone, for example, might be more aware of the necessary timeframe required to charge the battery. Currently, it has to guess it (albeit, with high precision).

“This research is bringing the promise that, with advanced estimation algorithms that are based on mathematical models, batteries can be charged faster and can run more powerful electric motors,” said Krstic, who is also associate vice chancellor for research at UC San Diego.

Most intriguing is Moura’s view of the project. He believes “This technology is going into products that people will actually use.” In other words, we could well see it implemented in the next iPad, iPhone, or Samsung Galaxy phone.

“We have the unique ability to address the difficulties in estimating the battery’s state of charge heads-on, at the electrochemical level,” added Krstic.